1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a color measuring unit which measures color of a color measuring pattern recorded on a colorable medium which can be colored by a coloring mechanism.
2. Description of the Related Art
In printed matter production sites, a proof has been generally performed before printing. Further, color correction, which checks whether colors of image data is faithfully expressed, has been performed using images formed in a sample copy, which under went proof processing, and authentication color patches displayed along with the images as a reference for correction.
On the other hand, a digital matching method, in which colors of an image displayed on a cathode ray tube (CRT) monitor and colors of an image expressed on a print sample copy outputted from an output device, such as a printer or an image setter are electrically matched using a color management file called profile, has been used in wide and performed at printed matter production sites or print data production sites (Patent Document 1).
Recently, color correction called simple proof printing in which a proof sheet is directly generated from printmaking print data is used in wide in order to decrease the time for proof processing, and a large-sized ink-jet printer is used for producing such a proof sheet. In the case of producing the proof sheet using the large-sized ink-jet printer, color information of an authentication color patch and a profile production color patch is measured using a color measuring apparatus called colorimeter, correction values are obtained by comparing the measured color information with colors of print data on the CRT monitor on the basis of the measurement result, and the color correction information is supplied to a printer driver which is a recording control device of an ink-jet printer.
The following patent document 2 discloses a color proofer in which a calorimeter can be attached to a carriage in which a recording head of the ink-jet printer is mounted and a calibrating method using the color proofer. However, in such a color proofer, since the calorimeter is attached to a recording head scanning carriage, the calorimeter cannot perform scanning alone in the separated from the recording head. Moreover, when reading the color information from the color patches, the read result of the color information varies according to even fine protrusion on the recording surface of the recording member on which the color patches are recorded. Accordingly, a method of securely holding the recording member by fixing the recording member is prefer to a method of measuring color while rotating the recording member like the color proofer disclosed in the patent document 2.    Patent document 1: JP-A-H11-004353    Patent document 2: JP-A-H11-326056